Akatsuki Launches AR Investment Fund

Augmented reality (AR) has been of interest to various companies for some time, an interest which has only grown since the launch of Apple’s ARKit and the announcement of Google’s ARCore. Now Japanese entertainment company Akatsuki are launching an investment fund aimed at AR entertainment technologies.

Though much of the focus for AR has been on how it can be used for business, such as the work being done by DAQRI, Vuzix and the relaunched Google Glass, videogaming and other entertainment is also a high priority. Akatsuki Inc. are encouraging this by investing up to $50 million (USD) into a fun aimed at encouraging start-up companies to create new AR content and services.
The new fund has been called the Akatsuki Entertainment Technology Fund, or AET Fund, and hopes to help start-ups and smaller firms by providing resources to encourage development in areas such as videogaming, animation, film, music, sports, live entertainment and location-based applications.

“Co-creating the Next Big Thing in Entertainment’ is the vision of our fund,” said Tomoya Ogawa, CFO of Akatsuki Inc., and Managing Director of the AET Fund. “We believe we can push the boundaries of entertainment experiences with AR technology, and we will co-create new innovations with startups who we will support through our fund to nurture them to become future leaders in Entertainment.”
The AET Fund has already completed several deals, and hopes to continue to provide investments towards innovation in the entertainment AR space.
VRFocus will continue to report on new developments in the VR and AR sectors.